F1 rival takes dig at Valtteri Bottas after Malaysia to Singapore bike ride

Valtteri Bottas has impressed a reasonable amount of the paddock this week by swapping four wheels for two and cycling to the Singapore Grand Prix from Sepang, but there are one or two out there who remain less than impressed by the feat.

Nico Hulkenberg appears to fall into the latter camp, with the Cadillac driver's spin into the gravel early in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia still on his mind.

Hours before he started his 400km+ odyssey from country to country on Sunday evening, Bottas had spun and parked his car in the gravel just at the point where the track was shifting from wet conditions to dry conditions, bringing out a safety car which saw all the intermediate tyre runners take a cheap stop – and all the slick tyre runners close up behind Bernd Maylander's car and recover a lot of the time they'd lost.

Hulkenberg, unfortunately, had just been the first driver to pit for slicks from intermediates, with the safety car meaning that everyone ahead of him got a cheap pit stop – as did everyone behind him. At the time of Bottas' crash, the German had fresher tyres than the cars behind him and at 15-second gap to the closest of them.

After, he had neither.

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Hulkenberg: Bottas ruined my race

A number of drivers have been asked about Bottas' cycling journey at the Marina Bay Circuit this weekend, but with his poor fortune in Malaysia still an open wound, he wasn't keen to talk up his fellow driver.

"I would have much preferred it if he hadn't spun on Sunday and had concentrated a bit more on the race instead of his bike ride," Hulkenberg said. "His actions really ruined the race for me."

For his part, Bottas appeared to have a lovely time on his trip, explaining that he planned his route out to do the bulk of the mileage (100 miles each) on Monday and Tuesday, leaving him just a short hop on Wednesday and enough time to get the lactic acid out of his muscles by the time he hit the track on Friday.

Bottas: I produced an impressive amount of sweat this week

“That was great fun, I’m glad I did the tour,” said the Finn, who encountered lizards, dogs, cows and snakes along the way. "All the routes were planned out. I also scheduled the two longer stages for Monday and Tuesday so they wouldn’t be too close to the race weekend.”

He added: “No, of course I wouldn’t do it if I knew it would hurt my performance. At least I’m pretty used to the heat now, that’s for sure. The amount of sweat I’ve produced over the last few days was pretty impressive. But the more time you spend in the heat, the better you get used to it.”

Will his team-mate Sergio Perez by joining him on any future excursions? “I find the tour very impressive – he has set the bar very high,” the Mexican driver said. “But I’d rather go golfing than do something like that.”

That's a no, then.

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